Monday, January 6, 2014

"The House on the Cliff"

After studying philosophy in college, Charlotte Williams went on to work as an arts journalist, writing for newspapers and magazines, and making documentaries for the BBC. She now works in radio drama, writing original plays and adaptations.

On page 69 of The House on the Cliff, psychotherapist Jessica Mayhew returns home after an emergency visit to a client threatening suicide. The client is Gywdion Morgan, a handsome but troubled young actor who lives with his parents in a clifftop mansion in the wilds of West Wales. Jessica has been unnerved by the visit; Gywdion’s parents are sophisticated, attractive people, but she senses a thoroughly unhealthy dynamic in the family, particularly between Gwydion and his father, Evan. Arianrhod, Gwydion’s mother, takes her out to look at the view over the sea and mentions a drowning that took place out there some years ago. Jessica suspects that a secret has been covered up. However, at this stage she is not keen to involve herself in finding out more.

Unusually, when she gets home her family are all out, and she too contemplates going out for the evening: ‘I wanted to be out and about, with people around me, lights, noise, chatter. Anything to prevent me from thinking too hard, to dim the memory of my trip to the Morgan place: that odd house, those odd people, my odd part in their lives…’

Of course, as it transpires, her curiosity gets the better of her, and soon she is entangled in the Morgans’ lives in ways she could not have predicted.